


Snapshot

by kairaki



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-09
Updated: 2016-05-08
Packaged: 2018-06-07 07:34:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 1,790
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6795010
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kairaki/pseuds/kairaki
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Family isn't just about blood. It isn't just about love. Stories about different types of families.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Kuroo Tetsurou

When you’re twenty-three, you think the world is at your feet. You can do anything; there’s nothing stopping you. Or at least you’re supposed to. When Kuroo hit twenty-three he felt the world had crumbled beneath him. He had hit rock bottom. Working night shifts at construction sites, working early morning paper route, working as a waiter in between that. Trying to save up money. Trying to pay rent. 

Kenma kept telling him that he was working too hard, but Kuroo brushed it off. If he didn’t work then what would he do? He had to build his life up from scratch. But he was optimistic. Life had a way of surprising you. 

At twenty-five, Kuroo felt he finally had a handle on this new life. He was back in school, taking classes during the day while he worked as a bartender at night. He made pretty good tips off that. Kenma was still telling him he was working too hard, but Kenma thought anything that required a little extra effort was hard work. Life was sailing. Soon he would be able to move out of his run-down apartment. Kuroo was proud of himself; it felt like life couldn’t throw anymore curve balls at him—and even if it did, he would hit it out the park. 

Maybe he celebrated his successes too soon. Maybe life liked pranking him too much. Whatever the answer, Kuroo didn’t know. 

“You can’t keep it.” Kenma had told him. 

But Kuroo was never really one to do as told. He liked challenges. Plus, being abandoned once is painful enough. Being abandoned twice is just unfair. Being abandoned third time? No child should have to go through that. Kuroo knew what it felt like to be abandoned. He wouldn’t wish that feeling onto anyone.

You’d think finding a baby on our doorstep would de-rail your life. Especially if said baby was definitely not yours, but Kuroo just took it in stride. Life had its reasons. He wasn’t one to question them. 

“Looks like it’s you and me against the world, bud. But hey, I promise it’ll get better…Kei. I’ll call you Kei. Because no matter what happens, at least you’ll have your own light to guide your way.” 

Kuroo was sure that he would remember this day fondly.


	2. Shimizu Kiyoko

When you’re twenty-five, you’re supposed to be embarking on a new chapter of your life. For Shimizu Kiyoko, that new chapter was supposed to be about raising a family. Instead, it was about preparing for her daughter for her father’s death. How do you prepare a child for losing her father? Kiyoko didn’t know. She wasn’t even prepared to lose Asahi. 

The doctor told them Asahi had at most five years if he remained on the aggressive chemo-therapy track, but Asahi didn’t want to waste the last few years of his life suffering from the after-effects of treatment. They couldn’t afford it.

No. He’d rather spend the short time he had left with his wife and daughter. He wanted his daughter to remember him fondly. That was his one selfish request. Even if he was sick, he had to think about his family first. 

They couldn’t afford for him to be scared of death. He wouldn’t leave his wife and child behind to clean up after him.

That very same night, Kiyoko remembered listening to Asahi soothe Hitoka. She was only a few months old. Too young to really remember her father. But Asahi was convinced that Hitoka knew him. Kiyoko couldn’t argue with him. Hitoka was always calmer with Asahi. She cried less. When Kiyoko held her, Hitoka was always fussy. How would she be able to raise their daughter on her own?

Kiyoko couldn’t imagine life without Asahi. She was scared. A year passed. Then another. But the fear never left her. Asahi was dying; she could see it with her own eyes. She could feel it with her body. 

Even though Asahi was the one prone to worrying it was her who was kept awake at night with “what-ifs” and “how-can-i’s”. She would curl up next to Asahi, one hand over his heart so she could feel his heartbeat. She used to like resting her head against his chest, but these days he was too weak to support her. So she compromised. her head tucked in the crook of his neck. Her hand against his heart. She needed that small comfort.

When Asahi was re-hospitalized, she became frantic. There were days she would hold their daughter in her arms and cry. Hitoka was still too young to really understand. She was just two. And even though they had spent the years trying to prepare her for the day “daddy will became a star”, Kiyoko didn’t know how to fully explain to her daughter why she was crying. 

She didn’t want Hitoka to grow up without knowing her father. She didn’t know if she could be a good mother. She didn’t know what a family was suppose to be like or what a mother was suppose to do. She didn’t know if Hitoka would love her as much as she loved Asahi—Hitoka was truly her father’s little girl. 

Even though she kept these worries to herself, she knew that Asahi was aware of them. After all, it was Asahi’s strength that kept her from breaking down. Even though he was dying he was still supporting her. Kiyoko loved him. She would be strong for Asahi. She would do her best.

When Asahi died, just a few months after Hitoka’s third birthday, Kiyoko squared her shoulders and dried her tears. She would do her best to raise Hitoka. She didn’t want Asahi to worry. He worried enough about her and Hitoka those last few months.

“Let’s say good-bye to Papa.” Kiyoko picked up her daughter. She felt so large in her arms. When Asahi held her she looked so tiny. 

Hitoka nodded. “Don’t cry Mama.” Hitoka patted her mother’s cheeks. “Hitoka will take care of you.” 

Kiyoko felt her heart drop. She laughed and hugged her daughter close. “Thank you.” 

Hitoka grinned in return. “Byes to Papa. It’s okay. Home is where Mama and Hitoka are.” She declared to the empty apartment. “Right, Mama?” 

Kiyoko nodded. “Home is where Hitoka-chan and Mama are.” She agreed. “Goodbye Asahi.” She added softly. She closed her eyes and shut the door to their home for the final time. Good bye and thank you.


	3. Hitoka and Kei

Life had a weird way of bringing people together—at least in Kuroo’s opinion. He had never expected what that a hole in the wall between his apartment and his neighbor Shimizu Kiyoko’s would lead to. Life was tricky like that; it liked dropping kids at his doorstep and tossing beautiful women into his path. (Though, as Kenma liked to point out, beautiful women were just his fantasy. His life was practically ascetic—especially since becoming a father).  
The hole in the wall, just large enough for three year olds to crawl through, was annoying to be sure, but neither Kuroo or Kiyoko had the heart to block it off. Their children were so enamored with what was just beyond that hole: A world that was so very different from their own, but yet so very familiar. For these single parents, their child’s small happiness was priceless. So the hole in the wall between their apartments remained. And a new relationship blossomed, fostered by the camaraderie of being the single parent to a toddler already touched by the grim realities of life. 

So Shimizu-san became Kiyoko.   
And Kuroo-san became Kuro.   
And Hitoka and Kei became siblings in every way but blood and marriage.

“Kei-chan, you know you can use the front door.” Kiyoko scolded, brushing drywall off the blond head. 

“The hole is faster!” Kei declared. 

Kiyoko couldn’t help but smile in response.“I’m beginning to think you’re getting too big to be crawling through that hole.” She said, measuring herself against him. Kei was only five years old, but he almost reached her shoulders in height. He towered over Hitoka who was the same age. 

“I’m gonna be taller than Dad!” Kei puffed out his chest proudly. “Ne, Hitoka-chan?” He asked, looking to Hitoka for support. 

Hitoka, who often played cheerleader to Kei’s antics, nodded her head vigorously. “You’ll be like Godzilla!” She threw both arms in the air and roared. 

“Let’s play Godzilla! I built a whole city we can destroy!” Kei pulled Hitoka towards the hole. “Dad can be the bad guy!” He declared. The two disappeared through the hole, laughing. 

“Yeah! Let’s eat him for dinner!” Hitoka exclaimed, 

“Who’s eating who for dinner?” Kiyoko heard Kuro ask teasingly from the other side. 

The children screamed, giggling wildly as Kuro swept them up in his arms. “Yo, Kiyoko, I caught us some kaijuu for dinner.” He called through the wall. 

From her side of the hole, Kiyoko laughed. “Let’s make kaijuu stew.” She answered back.

Life is filled with unexpected twists. Two families becoming one because of a hole in the wall is just one of them.


	4. Michimiya Yui

When you’re sixteen, you hope for true love but you know that life is a little more boring than a typical shoujo-romance. At least that was what Michimiya Yui thought until her friends convinced her to confess to her long time crush Sawamura Daichi. 

But even if they were high school sweet hearts, their relationship had its ups and its downs. It wasn’t easy, but love is never easy. It wasn’t much of a surprise to their friends and family that they got married right after high school. It was practically expected. 

What wasn’t expected was the difficulty they would face in actually starting a family.   
At twenty-five, Sawamura Yui was losing hope. She couldn’t get pregnant. They had tried a variety of treatments, battled through three miscarriages—Yui was stressed, depressed, and angry. Money was running short and patience was running thin.

Yui knew that Daichi didn’t blame her—he just wanted her happy and healthy. But Yui couldn’t help but feel like a failure; as though she wasn’t a real wife. And even though they had agreed to pursue adoption, Yui felt robbed. Why couldn’t she get pregnant?  
And then their world turned upside down. 

One little bundle of energy and excitement came barreling into their lives and suddenly Yui was a mother. But even though Yui had yearned for motherhood, she felt guilty; she hadn’t expected to become one through a series of tragic events. 

Because Hinata Shouyou, at age four, was an orphan. 

And how do you tell a four year old that his parents were never coming home because they had been killed in a place far, far away?


End file.
